Teaching with Bible Maps

an article for Sunday Software’s
Bible posters and Bible Maps webpage
by Rev. Neil MacQueen
www.sundaysoftware.com

In this article:

Intro
Why teach with maps
Example of teaching a story with a map
Young Children and Maps
15 lesson ideas for teaching with maps
Tips for displaying maps

1. Intro

I love to look at Bible maps and teach with them. Always have. Maps are far more than geography lessons.

Maps are “storyboards” which the teacher creates in the student’s mind.
They are a visual prop upon which to hang our verbally delivered information.
They are a graphic user interface that can store and trigger memories.
Maps harness our “love of the hunt”. (Where’s Egypt? How far to Sinai? Where did they go next?)

Until recently, I have been recommending Abingdon’s famous and old-fashioned looking Bible maps collection. The Abingdon maps were very “geographic” looking. Solid. Old Fashioned. Not visually attractive, and not kid-friendly. The print on the maps was too small for kids sitting 4 feet away. And the colors were muted.

Now you know why I was so excited to find
newer, more colorful and kid-friendly set of teaching maps.

See also our Heroes of the Bible poster collection!

2. Why teach with maps

Map locations are visual references that can store and trigger memory. Look at the Sinai pennisula, and you can see Moses and the Israelites trekking across it. Look at Paul’s travel map and you remember the passion he had for sharing the Gospel. That info is not apparent to the student just by looking at the map. The teacher must ASSOCIATE those ideas with the visuals.

In associative memory, one memory is connected to another. Trigger one memory, and others come with it. The map becomes a visual coat-hook and trigger for memories. This is the way family photos work. You see a photo of your mom and associated memories and feelings flood your awareness. Bible Maps are a kind of Biblical family photo, IF you teach with them that way.

And now you know why Jesus went to the cross. He knew the world would never forget the searing visual of his death. When I see a map of the city of Jerusalem, and the location for “Golgotha”, I see Jesus on that cross, and I teach with many visuals, including a map, to plant that memory in my student’s brains.

It’s as if there are two maps: the one we see, and the one our mind creates.

TEACHING AND REFLECTING WITH A MAP

As educators, we try to be astute about how our student’s minds are wired for learning… how learning really works, and what’s “just work.” The following lesson describes how the learner’s mind & memory might be interact with the teacher’s presentation of a map and set of questions about Abraham and Sarah’s call.

Maps are visual interfaces for information. They provide visual hooks for the auditory and printed information the students are interacting with. Adding visuals to information is a great way to both ENGAGE THEIR ATTENTION, and help their brains remember the content. Even with younger children who don’t fully understand maps, the visuals and color help focus the conversation, and they can draw inferences from the map that teach them. An “inference” such as, “brown = desert = hard journey.”

Here is a lesson “walk through” describing how I’ve led students through a Map of the Abraham Story with notes about how their brains are working through the information.

1. WHERE IS UR? (Their eyes will search the map. Our eyes and brains love to “find” things. A poor teacher points it out. A good teacher turns it into a scavenger hunt.)

2. Who lived in UR? (Their brain will search their memory for this info. Either you or their memory will reward them with the correct answer: “Abraham and Sarah.” Their minds will now associate that information with that name and visual location on the map. Ask them what’s nearby (rivers) and they’ll have further hooks to find it in the future.)

3. What modern day country is UR located in today? (The name “Iraq” will open up all sorts of information and feelings to discuss, as in, we just fought a war there.)

4. So God called an IRAQI to go to Israel? (Kind of a startling claim in today’s world, and if they don’t know that, tell them! This opens up the struggle of what this says about God and who is called. Surprising info always gets remembered!)

5. How far and difficult was the journey from here to here, Ur to Canaan? (Pretty far, looks brown and rocky on the map. Ask them to consult the legend and come up with a comparable distance, such as, “that’s from our town to Disney World.” This distance tells them something about Abraham’s faith.)

6. What do you think Abraham’s wife Sarah said to him when he announced the journey? His friends? His kids? What would your MOM say? Your sister? (getting personal is a great way to get things remembered, and it also interjects life application)

7. WHO ELSE in the Bible traveled a long distance to complete a mission? (accessing, accessing…. Moses! Paul!)
Ever been on a long hard journey? What was that like for you and fellow travelers? (The phrase “long journey” or “long car ride” will evoke some emotional twinge to your lesson content, and we know that memories are strengthened by emotional content.)

8. What does God’s call to make a long journey tell you about what God expects out of us? (the map colors tell you it’s brown and rocky, hard and far. I would ask a follow up about what you need for a long journey with others, such as patience. Ask them to tell a few vacation stories!)

9. Why did God call Abraham to live in Canaan? What’s around Canaan? (I would point out how people traveled through there to get from Africa to Europe From Arabia to Turkey. They will begin to see the ‘shape’ of the region as a crossroads, and seeing that shape on future maps, will remind them of the crossroads concept.)

10. etc etc.

And now we’ll finish with a map Reflection Activity….

11. MAP REFLECTION ACTIVITY:

◙ Draw a map of your life, and locate important people and places on it.

◙ Place a goal out on one edge of your map, and yourself on the other side of your map.

◙ Label the side you’re on describing what kind of “country” you are living in. COLOR IN parts of your map representing good and difficult things in your life. What color is school or family or church?

◙ Now add an area beyond your map which “God may be calling you to” (not an actual location, but a figurative one.) Now add a barrier between your land and the land God might be calling you to.

◙ Label the things that are ‘in the way’ of you reaching your goal. Now draw some trails to get to that goal. What is the ‘name’ of that trail?

◙ Make a list of things you’re going to need to travel with to reach your goal.

◙ Share !

But what about stories where nobody moves?

Let’s take the Wedding at Cana, for example, Here’s an abbreviated talk using a Bible map where Jesus seems to stay at one location.

To the kids: So where’s Cana? Come find it on the map. How far is it from Nazareth? Come measure it. How did Jesus get there? How long did it take he and his family? Where were some of the people at the wedding probably from…point to places on the map. After he did the miracle, where did they go to? Thus, what was the REACH of that miracle? What nearby towns might the story have spread into? Where did he go next? How fast would his reputation have spread? How do we spread his reputation? Who do you tell? How do you tell? where do you tell?

Here’s a lesson sketch for beginning a lesson about the crucifixion with a Map.

As I use the map, I’m moving my hand across it, inviting kids to touch the map, and even drawing a temporary map. The eye is built to track whatever moves, and drawing imprints visual memory to the info they are hearing.

Can you find Golgotha on the map? Where is it near? Were their people near it? Why? (They were coming into Jerusalem at the nearby gate.) Was he crucified within or outside of the walls? Why? How do we preach Christ crucified in a prominent location for all to see? Who walks by you or church saying bad things about us or our beliefs? What was Peter and Mary’s location there that day? How close would you have stood? How would you have been feeling? How close are you standing NOW …believing or not believing? What’s causing you to stand back from Christ? Are you afraid the crowd might start insulting you and not just him? How can you get closer to Christ?

(Here I draw a map of Golgotha and ask kids how close or far away they feel from Christ at the cross.)

Can you find the tomb on the map? How prominent was this area to Jerusalem? Given the close proximity of the tomb to Jerusalem, how quickly might the story of Jesus’ resurrection have spread in the city? Where will you go from here now that you know Christ has died for you? How will you spread the story?

Here’s an example of sequencing the story of Jesus’ last two days in Jerusalem.

Students are asked to come up to the map and point out where the Last Supper was, the Garden, how he went from the Garden to the High Priest’s House, then to Herod’s, and then to Pilate in the Antonia Fortress, then on to Golgotha. Add photos of Jerusalem locations with your map and your visual memories increase substantially because you are adding more visual memories upon which to hang your lesson content. In our Life of Christ CD, there’s a narrated map tour of Jesus’ last two days in Jerusalem. I created a worksheet that has that map on it, …but with all the locations blanked out. The kids had to go to those locations, and fill in the places, and what happened there. You can see that “Last Two Days” free lesson resource linked on my Life of Christ CD webpage.

4. Young Children and Maps

I used to worry that YOUNG CHILDREN couldn’t understand that a MAP represented a real location. But then I stopped worrying when I realized maps were about IMAGINATION and not about “real place”. They are a type of story illustration that helps organize and reference what we say.

Older students can developmentally handle the “distance between points” on a map, but the greens and browns and blue lines for rivers are still just visual illustrations, and younger children do just find with picture books.

5. 15 STRATEGIES AND TIPS FOR TEACHING WITH MAPS

1. Use colorful maps. Colors stick in the brain.

2. Use BIG maps. Occupy the student’s attention by occupying their field of vision.

3. Leave your maps out where the students can see them later. Memories need reinforcement and triggering. Don’t put them away.

4. Let your kids put their hands on the map. Ask them to walk forward and point to certain locations or trace routes. This invokes their ‘manual’ learning, and kids in particular learn by touching.

5. Identify types of terrain, in part because ‘terrain’ is a visual metaphor that enhances the concepts of “difficulty and perseverance” in the scripture.

6. Identify distances on the map. When Elijah left Mt Carmel to escape to Mt Horeb, the distance traveled tells you something about his desperation and state of mind.

7. Use photos of biblical landscapes to enrich visual memories of the content. Content loves to hang on visuals. The internet is a great source of Bible Land photos.

8. Play “fill in the blank” games with maps that have kids referencing other maps and materials.

9. Play location scrambles with maps. For example, if you’re teaching about the Good Samaritan, have six or seven place names written on placards that can be attached to a large map of Israel you have drawn. In a lesson about the Good Samaritan, for example, this could be the visual pretext for you sharing why the Jews didn’t like the Samaritans –because the Assyrian army was settled there in the 8th C BC and mixed with the people who were thus considered “mongrels” by the Jerusalem leaders. Jesus, however, brought them back in the fold. Samaria was also one of the capitals of the northern Kingdom, which fell out of disfavor. Jesus was a “northerner” too, from Nazareth. WHY do people despise others because of WHERE THEY ARE FROM? Or how they talk? Or how they look? Or what skin color they have? PRETEXT !!

10. Print maps and color them in, add routes and name places and symbols. Younger kids love to do this. They are helping create their own graphic user interface.

11. Have a detailed TEACHER’s map or Bible Atlas handy to locate certain locations not found on your more kid-friendly colorful map.

12. Have a set of POST-IT NOTE tags and arrows ready to let kids mark locations. (Arrow post-its are the kind they sometimes use in legal documents to mark where signatures are required). This saves you from using PINS in the map and destroying it.

13. Have student draw “Personal Reflection Maps” of the story’s meaning or reflection. Example, “draw three countries on your map and label them “WhereIwas”, “IamNOW”, “NeedToBe”. Then lead students through a discussion, illustrating their maps as you discuss. For example, draw and label the wall or barrier mountain between “WhereIwas” and “IamNow” that kept you from seeing what Jesus was talking about when he said, “Seek First the Kingdom of God”. Draw things in “NeedToBe” that Jesus wants you to see and find in your life”. (Yes, you could just draw the imagined map yourself, but when a student draws it, their brain is beginning to commit the visual and content to memory so let them DO it.

14. Make your own imagined “LOCALIZED” version map of a Story Location. For example, in the story of the man let down through the roof, draw a large map of Capernaum and the surrounding area, including the Sea of Galilee. Draw HOUSES and LABEL the houses as such: the paralyzed man’s home, Peter’s house, the synagogue, the local Roman soldier’s post, the ‘friends’ house, the disciples on a boat. a nearby village where people heard about Jesus, etc. Creation discussion questions for each location and have kids roll a die to pick a location question they must answer. Example: What did the paralyzed man’s family think about him before and after the miracle?

15. Play “Board Games” with your maps. For example, place numbered post-it notes over key location on your map, roll dice, and answer a question for that location. Or, draw your own version of a location, such as, the locations in the Zaccheus story (Jericho, Zaccheus house, his tax office, the rich young man’s mansion) and post questions to each of those locations. You can also play board games with your imagined “local” maps and Personal Reflection Maps mentioned above.

Here’s a Map Activity for the Feeding of the 5000 that starts with a Bible Map, and moves to a Personal Map to teach “the geographic impact of belief”:

When studying the Feeding of the 5000, show them where Bethsaida is, talk about the other towns Jesus had been preaching in. Measure some distances and ask, “How far could Jesus have walked each day?” Now have them imagine the 5000 all going home to their towns and villages in groups of 50. Have them place a DOT on their own map for each of the groups of 50…. it will be 100 dots! Now flip over their maps and draw the shape of your town or city. Ask: How many people are in our church? Place that many dots on the map of your town (if you have a large church, one dot can equal 10 or 50 people). the map you have created tells you WHY Jesus revealed his identify in that miracle… because he knew “the dots” would spread throughout the towns and countryside telling others about him. How does OUR church help spread the message of Christ? What should each dot do every day to be part of the spreading of the message?
I hope these tips will inspire your own.

6. Tips on Displaying Your Maps

WHEN YOU RECEIVE YOUR SET OF FOUR BIBLE LAND MAPS

The Bible Lands Maps come folded in a protective envelope. If you’re going to be storing them folded, then you’re good to go. However, I recommend you hang them or mount them, and thus, the following way of preparing them:

Unfold the maps and place them face down on a clean hard surface, such as a table. Using a rolled dry cloth, gently massage the crease lines until they are flat. You can also use an electric iron set on the lowest possible heat setting, and with the steam setting OFF. Place a thin towel on the crease and gently warm and press the creases. Do not use the steam setting as this will cause the paper to crinkle when it dries.

You should glue your maps to foamcore using spray glue, or place the maps under a plexiglass sheets (immobile). If framing the maps, apply a very very light coat of spray tacky glue to the back panel that came with the frame and carefully lay the map onto the backing where you have lightly sprayed the glue. Do not use much glue at all and do not spray directly on the posters themselves. The glue is to prevent the map from sagging or shifting inside the frame. If you use too much, it may soak into the paper and cause wrinkling when it dries.

I recommend gluing them to foamcore board, and then hanging with with velcro command strips so you can MOVE THE MAPS when you’re teaching with them!

WAYS OF DISPLAYING YOUR MAPS:

Tip 1: GLUE your maps to foamcore and mount a hanger on them so you can move them around the classroom and not have to store them away. (Out of sight is truly out of mind).

Tip 2: You can also frame your maps, or slide under a plexiglass sheet you have mounted to a wall.

Tip 3: CLAMP all their top edges together between two strips of wood and hang on hooks in the wall. Get two 1″x 3/4″ boards and cut them approx 6 inches longer than length of the maps. (The extra 3″ on each side will be where you make your attach points for attaching the maps to the wall. This will also allow maps to be flipped over the board and not hit the mounting hooks.) Stack the maps and clamp the top 1″ of the maps between the two strips of wood. Fasten the clamping with bolts or glue. Now you have a hanging set of maps. If you don’t want to clamp over the top 1″ of your maps, GLUE a strip of cloth to the top of each map and clamp the cloth. This will also keep your maps from creasing and tearing at the bend when you fold them over to access various maps.

How to MARK ON YOUR MAPS without destroying them:
If you’re putting your maps under plexiglass, you can use dry erase markers on them. If you are hanging them, then purchase large CLEAR “dry erase” vinyl sheets to place over your maps so you can MARK THEM UP with a dry erase marker. Google the term “clear dry erase vinyl sheet”, or look at the topvinylfilms.com website.

Teach with maps! …and enjoy.

<>< Neil

P.S. What do blank walls tell kids about Jesus?

Order our new Posters or Maps using our special poster order form

Neil MacQueen is a Presbyterian minister, Christian educator and author, poster and Bible map fan, and owner of Sunday Software. This is a “think about it” piece. If you’d like to use or reprint part of it, you are welcome to do so as long as credit is given. Copyright 2015.

Download article as PDF